Roll For Romance - Lenora Woods // Book Review

Roll For Romance

Lenora Woods || Publication Date - 17.07.2025

Romance budding between D&D characters and their players - Yes please!

Fiction | Fantasy | Romance

Affiliate Link - https://bookshop.org/a/110173/9780593975411

Sadie is down on her luck. She's been fired from her job, and has now left the loving bustle of New York City for a small town in Texas. Her long time best friend, Liam, has offered to house her while she gets back on her feet and finds another job. Unfortunately, Sadie is far from ready to throw herself back into the corporate world so soon.

For something to do, Liam invites Sadie and a small group of people to play a campaign of Dungeons & Dragons. They're all new players, and people she may have met in town should she have ever left the house for longer than 5 minutes. One that strikes her interest is a ruggedly handsome bartender at the new local hotspot 'The Alchemist'.

As the campaign progresses, and the groups friendships grow, Sadie has a choice to make. Does she go back to a life of corporate servitude in the big city? Or does she leave that all behind to grow roots in this quaint small town?

The Review (may contain spoilers)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me early access to this eARC for an honest review!

I need to gush over how this novel is written. I'm loving the split between the out of character normal lives of Sadie and the other players, however, also having the in game scenarios being played out by all their player characters is so much fun. My only gripe with the scenario is that the characters are acting as if they are experienced D&D players, whereas the table is formed by players new to the game. For storytelling reasons this makes sense, however as an experienced TTRPG player myself I found it a bit odd.

I'm not particularly a fan of the beginning of the romance. It's giving very instalove and for me this isn't my favourite. I can definitely appreciate being attracted to someone from the get go, but he is kind of a bit creepy with it. Sadie is a bit more realistic with her attraction at least telling herself to cool off... As they progress through the novel it becomes so much more wholesome and sweet, thankfully and I found myself rooting for them. Especially when they decided to role play as their D&D characters out of game. That was so freaking cute!

I enjoyed the 3rd act drama in this novel as well. It wasn't miscommunication, thankfully, as both characters actually spoke about their concerns and their plans. They were okay with a type of relationship which was 'we will see where we end up', even though secretly hoping they end up together. It was refreshing and realistic and I loved how they navigated the challenges this type of relationship can bring up.

Overall Thoughts

I loved this novel, it was so much fun! The characters were awesome, the D&D Campaign scenario which was played through the novels characters was like a mini story all on its own and it was a wholesome romp the whole way to the end. If you like romance, I would recommend this book. If you like fantasy, I would recommend this book. And if you like D&D, I would recommend this book! It ticks so many boxes for me that I will definitely be buying a physical copy to go back and re-read when I need something fun to dip back into.

Thoroughly keeping my eyes on this author and I'll be buying their next release if/when it's available because I could easily see them becoming a new favourite author.

Everyone on This Train is a Suspect - Benjamin Stevenson // Book Review

Everyone on This Train is a Suspect
Benjamin Stevenson || Publication Date - 17.10.2023

Death seems to follow Earnest wherever he goes... Even on an author's retreat across the country.

Fiction | Crime | Mystery

Affiliate Link - https://bookshop.org/a/110173/9780063279087

Following the events of 'Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone', Ernest Cunningham is trying to live a quiet, non-death filled life and revel in the fact he is now a published author. However, when Earnest published his novel, he didn't think he would be on The Ghan travelling with some of the most prolific authors in the industry. He also didn't think that he would be dealing with another murder... or two.

Unfortunately, this is where he finds himself. Travelling on a luxurious train from Darwin to Adelaide, his fiancé by his side, a murderer, and a corpse in the train's fridge.

Now the train is occupied by authors who turn into amateur sleuths to try and figure out what is happening before they all end up dead.

The Review (may contain spoilers)

Just like 'Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone', it's written from the perspective of Ernest recounting events from his past. Already within the first pages I am happily thrown back into the writing style that I fell in love with in the first novel. It's funny, it's clever, and deadpan in a deliciously good way.

I can understand why readers following on from Stevenson's first book would echo that it's the same as the first, but set on a train. However, for me, something about the writing and how the narrative is told to me is like 'fairy floss for my brain'. It connects with me and, honestly, is simply a great time. Enjoyment in a book is worth a lot to me, and I very much enjoy Benjamin Stevenson's writing, even including his earlier novels.

For some who have not already read the first instalment, 'Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone', this does reference people who appeared and events which happened within that novel. I don't necessarily believe that it is a must read for you to appreciate this story, however, it would give amusing context to a lot of comments and quips thrown throughout this book.

I did rate this book lower overall compared to the first in the series. Some of the scenes within the novel I found a little confusing to follow along, specifically where there was action involved... because there was some including The Ghan and a car. Albeit amusing, it added something different to the structure of the novel and even though I did just it a bit hard to follow, I enjoyed it none the less.

Overall Thoughts

As an Australian, I will admit I am biased to Australian authors. Benjamin Stevenson is one of those such authors that is also Australian and I am biased to. His writing is fun and witty, the mysteries are enjoyable, and I love the structure to this series of novels. They don't seem to take themselves too seriously and are self aware enough to acknowledge when something is plainly absurd.

I find myself excited to see when a new book in this series is going to be released and recently, this has been a severely missed feeling for me. If you enjoyed the first, I'd hesitate to say you wouldn't enjoy this one too. I'd also like to point out that if this is the first time you are seeing this book or series, give it a shot! I'd place my bets that the writing is not for everyone, however if you're looking for an easy read, mystery crime novel that doesn't take itself too seriously, this would be the series for you.